How to open a Scandinavian auction on the Internet?

When someone sees a Scandinavian auction for the first time, the usual reaction is often a sincere interest and surprise. Gripping idea of how it all works, we usually end up starting to gnaw ourselves about how cool it would be to establish a similar business, or how great it would be to win in such a project something for free. There are also some of the skeptics who not even understanding a thing consider such projects to be a fraud, but there is no point considering those, because such people are usually not amenable to different types of services, and therefore are not target audience for business in general .

So, what is a Scandinavian auction? Wikipedia obligingly tells us that this is the type of auction in which the product or service is exposed for sale at an unprecedented low cost. Throughout the auction participants make bets with a fixed step. Each participant is charged for each bet, because, typically, the participant buys a package of predetermined bets. Duration of the auction is increased by the desired value after each new bid. Winner is the party who makes the last bet.

It turns out that all auction participants, wishing to be the last and win, permanently increase the price of the good and the duration of the auction. That is if you look at solid residue of the project. However, a major role in this kind of business is played by an emotional component. People who like gambling are very quickly captured by such entertainment, which often promises a very valuable reward for their efforts.

Knowing the properties of such auctions, it can be concluded that this type of auction can be viewed by authorities as a kind of gambling, because Federal Law of 29.12.2006 № 244-FZ «On State Regulation of the activities of the organization and conducting gambling and making changes to some legislative acts of the Russian Federation» defines the notion of «gambling» to be: a prize agreement based on risk, signed by two or more parties of such an agreement among themselves or with the organizer of the game by the rules set by the organizer of the gambling.

And as gambling and casinos in RuNet are banned for several years now, the planning of the opening of an own Scandinavian auction should begin with a choice of location for the server at the places away from Russia and the choice of an offshore company for this business. One of the countries most suited to gambling, is Panama, which means it makes sense to buy a server for your online auction in Hong Kong and register the company in Panama for $ 3000. In this case, you protect yourself from any problems associated with the law in the territory of Russia.

The next step is to choose a platform for Scandinavian auction. There are two options, either join an affiliate program or write your own CMS, that will require finding your own channel of supplying goods, assuming all the business issues and a lot more concerns, which tend to accompany the process of opening a business from scratch. If you have already purchased an offshore company, have cheap labor, have a profitable channel for cheap goods, then, it definitely makes sense to develop a business project. However, the risk that remains here is quite high and, hence, it is better to carry out the following combination: start opening a Scandinavian website from joining the auction affiliate program, and further, if the results are successful and you can get a permanent target audience, which will work for you and not you for it, you can safely abandon the service of an affiliate program and organize your own business. But it is certainly better to start with an affiliate program.

It does not make sense to pay attention to the development of the site, because, by and large, everything here is simple and based on the ready CMS and finished graphics. The only thing needed is to give advice on setting up navigation on the site. Try to make sure that the user is able to place bets on several auctions being anywhere in the site. This principle yet was laid down by the builders of Las Vegas, which originally install the places of slot machines in the layout of the hotels at any potentially crowded places, regardless what it is: the line in the wardrobe, or a machine with a chilled sparkling water on the house floor. It should be remembered that people who like gambling will never miss a chance to play. And since the view of the running out seconds of the lot makes players to bet nervously, then there should be no possibility of them being distracted while on the site. Therefore, the lots should be in each section of the site, in every part of the site. When planning the number of active lots think about their number not to fit their monitors. Scrolling will distract the attention of the person from the auction, in which he focuses the most, and, thus, will stimulate him for a larger number of bids, many of which obviously will not work.

Moreover, focus attention on the new slots that will soon come into the game. This creates a powerful psychological pressure on the players who have long wished to become the owner of certain things. Once they see the potential of drawing a product they have dreamed of, they will be configured on winning. And as usually there are many of such stubborn players, well advertised products can in the future become the subject of battles of the players and increase its value in the long run.

Try to set different parameters for the auction. For example, the option of a «day auction», which is active only during certain hours, will save you from the outflow of traffic from the site. It turns out that in this case, you don’t have to be afraid of failures from night attendance and sales of the products for the unprofitable price. However, do not be over-diligent with these parameters, because many people come to play at night, or, vice versa, do not play in the daily auctions, perfectly understanding that there is a small chance of winning.

Consider the question of parsing the data from the site by the smartest players. Use technology impeding regular parsing with high frequency. Use Ajax, block IP addresses, which frequently update pages, because it is easy to win the goods with the least losses just knowing the system of the game. And here it is important to remember that many of the players, after several failures begin to pay more attention at auctions and to those who make automatic bids. «Automates» are who bring interests of players down and at the same time force them to follow the auction. Calculation of the players here is simple - to wait until the «automates» spend all their funds and then pick up the goods for themselves in the absence of competitors. As a result, understanding the psychology of the players, there is a sense of having a few bots on your site that will govern «distortions» in the game and will help increase the value of the goods. Thus, in particular one bot machine will help you to empty the balance of several «automates», zealously fighting for the desired product. It also makes sense to have a bot, which will be making random bids, and thus simply increasing the value of the goods. There is also a need for a rescue bot, which will be «saving» the auction at the time, when the good is being sold for an unobjectively low price. Perhaps, at this point all the players are away to other lots, and someone has a chance to break the bank, that certainly could be a happy event for him and a loss for you.

An important issue in designing and organization of Scandinavian auction is the question of the bids and the step of the auction. Keep in mind, minimizing the step (the price of a bid), you do not deprive yourself of money for goods receipts, you create psychological pressure on the players, because small step is obviously a low price for the goods that affects visitors to the site as cheap «burden bearing» hosting at webmaster.

With regard to the time interval increased always prolongs the life of auctions, but makes it less dynamic and therefore less expensive in the end.

There is no point in calling optimal values of the step and time interval, because they are regulated in accordance with the traffic of the site. The more traffic, the greater should be the time interval and the lower the step, and vice versa.

It is best to start the minimum price of the product at zero. By setting a substantial price of a lot in advance, you deprive the gambler who wishes to acquire goods for a funny price, and therefore deny his desire to play.

An important issue is the sale of package of bids. Remember that all people are different, they live in different places and are accustomed to using different payment methods. As a result, it is necessary to diversify the options of bids packages as much as possible. First, let users pay for lots using electronic money. Here, try not to be limited only to WebMoney and Yandex Money, enter as many currencies as you can. Do not fear that they will be difficult to cash out. For example, Trainex exchange office makes the exchange in one day, and sends any amount by bank transfer or through Western Union anywhere in the world. The same goes for replenishment, people are always able to easily fill up the balance through exchange offices. In addition to e-money give the opportunity to pay for bids package by bank transfer, as well as, the WU.

In addition to the purchasing bids packages make it possible to place bids on the means of SMS. These bids usually never win, but increase the cost of the lot and bring money into in your SMS-billing account.

Developing your own Scandinavian auction, first of all, think about where to find effective traffic wishing to play. Usually players are those who have free time and desire to get something for free. That is, office workers, spending all of their time in social networks, students, and those who prefer to find all the entertainment on the Internet. However, it may be effective to buy traffic as well, because even a «pop up» with expiring auction can attract the attention of the audience.

Summarizing all this, it should be said that Russia, due to the development of the Internet, to a large extent, is not yet ready for a large number of auctions working in the «Scandinavian system». However, if you have high quality traffic, great desire and a few wily marketing ideas in store to promote the process of attracting players, it is definitely worth trying!

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